


Comfortable Neutrals

by SadieHerondale



Series: Broken Prisms [7]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Depressed Stiles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Heavy Angst, Hurt Stiles, Hurt/Comfort, I tried to keep the stisaac dynamic I established earlier, Isaac is so much fun to write, M/M, POV Isaac Lahey, Post-Nogitsune Stiles Stilinski, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scott is a Good Friend, Self-Destruction, Self-Harm, Stiles Has Issues, Stiles Has Nightmares, Stiles Stilinski Has Scars, Stisaac - Friendship, Train of Thought, Very little dialogue, he's trying, honestly Stiles is just fucked up, in a depressing sort of way, isaac is a good friend, just a lot of pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 18:30:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6090114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadieHerondale/pseuds/SadieHerondale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They don't talk about it. </p><p>(Can be read as a standalone but it'll make more sense if you read the previous one for context)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comfortable Neutrals

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, gonna put this here again, but trigger warning: Stiles hurts himself. Not enough to kill, but enough to scar. None of it is onscreen, but if that can trigger you, PLEASE don't read this. I won't be offended or upset. I'll be glad that you're safe. 
> 
> That said, if you're one of the ones reading it, I hope you love Isaac as much as I loved writing him. Because I did. I loved every. single. second. Also, there's a segment near the end that could be read as Stisaac shipping, but they're both in VERY committed relationships with other people so yeah. BroTP, not OTP.

The late night visits were never actually supposed to become a thing.

A one-time thing, maybe two because Scott was out of town for two weeks and even Isaac can't go that long without sleep, but they were never supposed to go for any longer than that because come on. _Stilinski?_

Isaac only really picked him because he knew that even before being possessed, the kid kept weird sleeping habits and because Scott and Derek trust him. Beyond that, he's exactly the type Isaac avoids: smart-mouthed, loud, drawing attention for the sake of avoiding attention.

Which is why, the first night he wakes up screaming and Scott isn't there, he doesn't go for help. Or the second night. Or the third.

But on the fourth night, when he pretty much has to sleep, he does. And it's terrible. Crushing. The nightmare never comes because the sleep itself is the nightmare: dark and cramped and inescapable. It's not quite like the freezer, even, because he knew, when he was in the freezer, that Dad would be back for him eventually, when he needed someone to make dinner. This... There's no time limit here.

When he wakes up, he's sweating and panting and thinking _I can't do this._

On his way to Stiles' house, he almost turns back no less than sixteen times (incredible, really, considering that the McCalls live three blocks away), but he finally gets there and there's a faint glow coming from the window.

Isaac scales the tree easily, but slowly. He's not sure how Stilinski will take him showing up at one thirty am on a Thursday. When he reaches the window, he peers through and sees the familiar Wikipedia globe in the top left corner of the computer screen. As he suspected, Stilinski isn't sleeping. Isaac taps on the window hesitantly.

"It's open," Stilinski says, and Isaac is shocked to see that he's looking straight at him. He was so preoccupied with the screen that he hadn't noticed the other boy turn his chair toward him.

Isaac slides it open and says what he's thinking for once; sleep deprivation doesn't leave a lot of room for aesthetic. "Doesn't Derek say anything about keeping that closed?"

Once upon a time, Stilinski might have grinned and said something about how the pup is growing feelings, but now he just shrugs, uncaring. "Nah. A window lock won't do jack shit against anyone I actually have to be afraid of. So what's going on?"

And that's how it starts. Stilinski seems to get it, seems to understand that sometimes the worst thing to do is ask about a nightmare. So they fall into a pattern that persists even when Scott gets back; Scott, as much as Isaac loves him, is an oblivious fucker and seems to just be glad that he and Stilinski-- _Stiles_ \--are getting along, finally, and not just tolerating each other's presence. Not that it's that big of a deal to keep him in the dark about the fact that they're binge watching Netflix to escape their demons.

Every time Isaac comes over, though, Stiles is already awake. Or if he isn't, he doesn't wake up when the werewolf slips into his room and opens the laptop. He's never seen Stiles have a nightmare, never really seen him do anything but support and recommend really great shows that Isaac never would have thought to look at before.

Which is why he's not surprised in the slightest when he walks into Derek's loft one day and sees Stiles curled up and shaking in Derek's arms-- because Isaac is great at reading people and Stiles is one of those that bottles things up and pretends he's fine when he's not. It's a dangerous and self-destructive way of coping and he's so unsurprised to know because it's so Stiles. It's just like him to inconvenience or hurt himself to prevent other people from worrying or getting hurt.

So he goes into the next room and does his homework, because there's not much he can do for Stiles right now if he doesn't open up. Stiles knows he's there; Isaac can hear the change in his breathing when he enters the room, can hear the other boy trying to calm himself down because he doesn't like looking weak.

They don't talk about it.

**~oOo~**

Scott is... slightly too excited when Stiles comes back to school. He tries to wheedle Isaac into letting him ride in the back so they can all get there together, but Isaac knows better than to subject Stiles to that just yet, so he just quietly reminds Scott that he has work after school and he might have to take Stiles home early, remember? Scott pouts, but agrees.

Isaac knows what silent guilt looks like on what he calls Bottlers better than he knows it on any of his other mental categories. Because he's a Bottler, and he knows his own tells. Stiles is eating himself alive over what the Nogitsune did to Scott. Isaac knows better than to tell him that no one blames him (Scott couldn't even if he wanted to because he's too forgiving, but Isaac is capable of holding major grudges; if their newfound friendship doesn't prove to Stiles that it isn't his fault, pretty much nothing will). Stiles has to come to terms with it in his own time, and Scott has basically forgotten about it altogether. He wants to just go back to the way things were, and Isaac isn't sure how to break it to his soulmate that Stiles isn't the way he was, and probably won't ever be again.

He knows he made the right decision when Stiles walks into physics looking pale and shaky and smelling of bile and pain. Scott would hate to see his best friend like this. Especially when Isaac notices that Stiles hasn't stopped scratching at his wrists for thirty minutes. He glances at the skin there and it's scraped raw, blood close to the surface. Isaac pauses in his note taking, reaches over, and grabs Stiles' fingers, setting them on the table without a word. Then he goes back to his note taking. There's nothing he can do right now, and if the fact that Stiles is even in class right now is any indication, Derek is going to be here soon enough. It's not his place to do anything before Derek has his shot to make it better.

Scott asks about Stiles at lunch, but Isaac just says he wasn't feeling well and went home. Scott pouts, but doesn't press. Isaac's pretty sure he isn't even considering that Stiles is really that damaged and if he is, isn't fully considering the consequences.

Isaac chokes down the school lunch and acts normally (not really an act; he's suspected this of Stiles for a while and he's very good about dissociating himself from things that bother him) until the end of the school day. He goes to Scott's house, does his homework, and tries to sleep. He's not trying very hard though. He's going to be at Stiles' house tonight whether he sleeps or not, but he'd prefer not to wake Scott up with his nightmares in the process. He loses enough sleep over Isaac already.

Scott falls asleep next to him at around eleven thirty, which is later than usual. Isaac is pretty sure he was stressing about Stiles and the math test he has tomorrow, because he's normally out like a light at ten fifteen. Isaac waits a half hour to see if he'll manage to fall asleep, but slips out at midnight with a backpack. Scott doesn't stir when the bedroom door opens.

Stiles is writing an essay when Isaac gets there, and the window is already cracked. When he catches the barely-there metal in the air, he knows exactly why. Stiles spins in his chair with a grin.

"Hey pup."

Isaac cocks his head to the side, considering how to best go about this. He settles on bluntness, because Stiles has never been good at detecting subtlety. "Take off your shirt."

Instead of the witty retort he knows he would normally get for a demand like that, Isaac watches the blood drain from Stiles' face fast enough that the other boy is probably dizzy. His hands grip the hem of his t-shirt tightly. "I, um, no. I'm taken."

"Stiles." Isaac doesn't say anything else, because he doesn't have to. It's not okay, and saying so would be a lie; he refuses to demand anything else, because if he isn't careful, this could get nasty.

Stiles avoids his eyes, but does as he's asked. The Captain America tee hits the floor and Isaac stops himself from sucking in a breath. Hundreds of thin scars litter his torso-- some old and silver with age, but more newer, barely scabbed over ones. Isaac's arms tingle with a phantom pain from before he got the Bite. Some overlap with battle scars: claw marks, gunshot wounds, a thicker cut from that faerie's knife a few months back. Most of them, though, are exactly what Isaac expected.

"Pants too, come on." Isaac shrugs off his backpack and pulls out the first-aid kit he put in there earlier. Melissa taught him some basic first aid, but anybody in their junior year of high school that doesn't know how to apply bandages to cuts is a moron. There's a rustle of fabric as Stiles' jeans come off.

He catches a whiff of salt and looks up. Stiles doesn't meet his eyes, but doesn't try to wipe the tears away either. Isaac is sure he's the first one to see this; he's hyperaware of it, in fact. He doesn't smile, but he understands. He knows Stiles knows it, too. It's why he isn't fighting.

Isaac cleans out the fresh wounds on Stiles' thighs and hips, resisting the urge to wrinkle his nose at the pungent smell of antiseptic and blood. Stiles doesn't even twitch, which is eerie in itself. He doesn't move a muscle when Isaac bandages his skin, doesn't fidget when he cleans off the scratched-raw skin on his arms.

 _There's no way Derek doesn't know,_ Isaac thinks, _but I get the feeling he doesn't really know what to do._ He makes a mental note to stop by the loft on Thursday, when Stiles and Scott hang out.

"I get it," he says out loud.

"I know."

"You can't risk getting infections though."

"I know."

Isaac sighs as he finishes taping gauze to Stiles wrists. He's not good at this sort of thing; he's always been the one that needs comfort, not the one doing the comforting. Especially not for anyone other than Scott. He gets up to put the first aid stuff away and pulls out a pair of sweatpants. He hands them to Stiles, who takes them numbly, but doesn't move to put them on. He sits stoically on his bed in his boxers, emotionless and covered in bandages.

"I brought a sweater if you want to wear it to school tomorrow." Isaac pulls it out and sets it on the chair. Stiles' eyes follow it, then flick back to the floor.

"Thanks."

Isaac shrugs. "Whatever. Just don't spill anything on it. It's cashmere."

 _It won't irritate your skin_ goes unspoken, but louder than anything else in the room.

"Cool. Thanks."

It's surreal to see him like this: resigned, not reserved. Not witholding his words to keep quiet, but drained of them altogether. Not putting up a false front of happiness or righteous indignation to divert attention from his actual thoughts. Just... drained. Tired. Terrifying. The wolf in Isaac paces in discontent at the suffering of its second favorite pack member. Isaac can't really fix the problem and it's an itch under his skin, the pack bond chafing at the pain of one of its own. It doesn't do that often, only when someone is near-fatally hurt, and his perspective of Stiles' mental state sharpens even as he pities Derek. If it's this bad for Isaac, he can't even how Stiles' soulmate must feel.

Isaac lets out a silent breath when Stiles tugs on the sweatpants robotically. It's quiet while he gets dressed, the only noise being the Sheriff's distant snoring and Stiles' uncomfortably steady heartbeat. The blood-antiseptic-tears scent hangs heavy in the air as he pulls his Captain America shirt back on. Isaac is the next to speak.

"So, sleep or Netflix? Cuddles optional either way."

**Author's Note:**

> The fact that you read it this far makes me happy, kudos make me smile, and comments make my day! :)
> 
> Come find me on tumblr: @look-im-just-trash


End file.
